1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a mobile table structure to facilitate batter dipping and breading food products such as chicken pieces, shrimp, fish pieces and other food products prior to cooking such products as by deep frying. The table structure includes a batter pan and a breading pan oriented adjacent to each other and supported in a table top. A refrigeration system is provided in the interior of a cabinet which underlies and supports the table top to cool the batter pan, the breading pan and to chill water in a refrigerated water reservoir supported within the cabinet which supplies prechilled water to the batter pan to enable the formation of chilled batter in the batter pan. The refrigeration system maintains the batter material and breading material at a lowered temperature, preferably below 42xc2x0 F., to retard or substantially reduce bacteria growth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many food products are coated with batter and breading prior to cooking. The food products are usually dipped into a generally liquid batter and then covered with a breading material by rolling the batter covered food product in the breading material. The coated food product is then cooked such as by deep frying or the like. Efforts have been made to more efficiently coat food products by providing a batter dip pan and a breading pan supported in a table structure at a convenient height to enable food processing personnel to dip food products into the batter and subsequently roll or otherwise apply breading material such as flour or the like to the food products and then manually placing the coated food products in a deep frying cooker.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,227 discloses a table-like structure having a batter pan and breading pan for manual batter dipping and breading of food products. In addition, the following U.S. patents disclose structures relating to the application of coating to food products:
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,520,277 4,862,824 5,020,427 4,182,260 4,898,664 5,226,354 4,458,586 4,936,246 5,265,525 4,550,677 4,952,309
While the above patents disclose related devices, none of them discloses a mobile breading and batter table including a self-contained refrigeration system which includes a cooling coil in a water reservoir to supply prechilled water for forming a chilled batter dip material and maintaining a low temperature of the batter dip material and breading material. Further, none of the prior patents discloses a mobile breading and batter table which includes a cooling coil associated with the batter dip pan and breading pan to reduce the pan temperatures so as to satisfy temperature recommendations or guidelines provided by health departments and the like, in order to retard or materially reduce bacteria growth in food products as they are being coated prior to cooking.
Cooking food products by deep fat frying is a well known procedure used by cooks at home and at restaurants and is especially efficient in large volume cooking such as used in carry-out restaurants, fast food restaurants and the like. Food products, such as chicken pieces, shrimp, fish pieces, meat products and the like are usually dipped in a generally liquid batter material and then rolled in flour or other breading material prior to placement in a deep fat fryer. The handling of the food products during the batter dipping and breading process exposes the food products to ambient temperatures which can, in some instances, permit the growth of bacteria in the food products. Such bacteria in the food product can result in potential food poisoning of persons consuming the cooked food product. Various government regulatory agencies, such as health departments and the like, frequently recommend temperature guidelines for various food products to be used by the food preparation industry during food preparation. The temperature standards seek to reduce the temperature of the food products to a level which will serve to reduce or retard the growth of bacteria in the food products during the handling procedure.
In order to satisfy the recommendations or guidelines provided by health departments or similar agencies for handling and processing food products, the present invention provides a mobile breading and batter table having a self-contained refrigeration system supported therein. The table includes a generally rectangular table top and a cabinet structure below the top. The bottom of the cabinet is supported preferably at its corners with four conventional type wheels or rollers which allow the table to be moved and positioned where desired. The table includes a pan for receiving batter material and a pan for receiving breading material in order to coat food products placed first in the batter material and then into the breading material. Both pans have a cooling coil on their exterior surfaces positioned within the cabinet underneath the table top. The cooling coils are incorporated as part of the self-contained refrigeration system.
The batter pan is communicated with a prechilled water supply tank which has a cooling coil incorporated therein, also as part of the refrigeration system. This enables the formation of chilled batter material. The refrigeration system maintains desired lower temperatures in the breading and batter materials during the coating procedure. Both pans also include an opening in their bottom wall to permit removal of the material from each pan. The batter pan discharges batter material into a drain line to a floor drain, and the breading pan discharges used breading material into a sifter which separates agglomerated dough balls from the breading material to recover reusable breading material which can be placed back into the breading pan.
An object of the present invention is to provide a mobile table structure for batter dipping and breading food products that incorporates a self-contained refrigeration system including a cooling coil in a water reservoir to supply chilled water for use in preparing a chilled batter dip material. The self-contained refrigeration system also provides a cooling coil associated with the batter dip pan and a cooling coil associated with the breading pan to maintain the temperature of the batter dip and breading at a sufficiently low temperature during the entire batter dipping and breading procedure. The low temperature generated by the refrigeration system within the batter pan and breading pan is sufficiently low to reduce or retard bacteria growth in the batter material and breading material thereby assuring that the batter and breaded cooked food product satisfies all standard guidelines and recommendations regarding temperatures of the food products during the various process steps.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile, self-contained table structure for batter dipping and breading food products in accordance with the preceding object in which the breading pan has a discharge into a removable sifter positioned in the interior of the table below the breading pan. The sifter receives the breading material from the breading pan when the moisture absorbed by the breading material causes some of the breading material to agglomerate to form dough balls thereby materially reducing the efficiency of the breading process. The sifter separates the dough balls from the breading material that is still usable to enable the reusable breading material to be placed back into the breading pan and the dough balls to be discarded.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a batter dipping and breading table for consumable food products such as chicken pieces, shrimp, fish pieces and the like in which a reservoir of prechilled water is communicated with a faucet having a discharge oriented above the batter dip pan to supply prechilled water to the batter dip pan. The prechilled water enables the batter dip to be originally produced at a low temperature when the prechilled water is used to form the batter dip.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a batter dipping and breading table for food products in accordance with the preceding objects in which a switch operates a pump to supply prechilled water to the faucet for discharge into the batter dip pan. The switch also controls a solenoid valve that prevents inflow of ambient temperature water into the reservoir when the chilled water pump motor is in operation. When the switch for the pump is turned to the xe2x80x9coffxe2x80x9d position, the solenoid valve opens for refilling the reservoir with water from a water source to a level determined by a float valve in the reservoir.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a batter and breading table in which the batter dip pan includes a drain which can communicate with a floor drain or the like to enable the batter dip to be discharged from the batter dip pan. Also, a water spray device mounted on top of the table structure and connected to a water supply is utilized to clean the batter dip pan as well as the breading pan and sifter area.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a food product batter dip and breading table in which the food product pieces to be batter dipped and breaded are supported in a lift tray having handles and supporting structure associated with the batter dip pan to facilitate batter dipping of the food products.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a mobile table structure for batter dipping and breading food products prior to cooking that includes a self-contained refrigeration system which supplies prechilled water to use in the formation of the batter dip and directly cools the batter dipping pan and breading pan to maintain the batter dipping material and breading material at a low temperature, preferably below 42xc2x0 F., to retard or substantially reduce the growth of bacteria in the batter dipping material and breading material.
Yet still another object of this invention is to provide a refrigerated breading and batter table in accordance with the preceding objects which will conform to conventional forms of manufacture, be of simple construction and easy to use so as to provide a structure that will be economically feasible, long lasting and relatively trouble free in operation.
These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.